Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7913131" data-attributes="member: 177">So, it seems to me that there's two things being mentioned here - character driven play, and narrative-driven development.&nbsp; I separate these because one is about play in the moment, the other is about long-term changes in the character.&nbsp; You literally cannot do these things at the same time.Some games are horrible for narrative-driven development, simply because the system doesn't support it very well.&nbsp; D&amp;D, for example, has rules structured such that there are choices which are highly effective, and those that are not highly effective, and if the narrative really says you want to do a thing that isn't effective... you are strongly discouraged from doing so.&nbsp; If you start with a strong, not-too-bright not too charismatic fighter, if events in the narrative say you'd want to pick up some arcane spell casting... you're basically out of luck.Fate, by comparison, is perfectly fine with this - character development is as much or more about change as it is power advancement.&nbsp; Swapping around skills and Aspects over time to react to what has happened in play is explicitly part of the system.Meanwhile, considering character driven play, D&amp;D is fairly rules-heavy, such that your options of what to do in a given moment is strongly influenced by what effective actions you have on your sheet - as a player, there's not a lot of incentive to do things that aren't among your most effective actions.&nbsp; So, you're a fighter.&nbsp; You fight, using the weapons and styles on the sheet.&nbsp; That's what you do - play is very much a tactical exercise, largely because the rules are very focused on tactical action (as opposes to, say, longer term strategic choices).I'll compare this to... Mage: The Ascension.&nbsp; A character has extremely flexible areas of power.&nbsp; Even fairly early in play, there's a wide variety of things they can choose to try to do to react to a situation.&nbsp; If you have Matter 3, you are likely able to transform most of the basic physical items around you in any way you want.&nbsp; If a car is trying to run you down, maybe you'll throw up a physical wall in front of it, or maybe you'll make the engine seize up, exactly how you address a situation can become much more about how your character approaches the world than what their character sheet says...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 7913131, member: 177"] So, it seems to me that there's two things being mentioned here - character driven play, and narrative-driven development. I separate these because one is about play in the moment, the other is about long-term changes in the character. You literally cannot do these things at the same time. Some games are horrible for narrative-driven development, simply because the system doesn't support it very well. D&D, for example, has rules structured such that there are choices which are highly effective, and those that are not highly effective, and if the narrative really says you want to do a thing that isn't effective... you are strongly discouraged from doing so. If you start with a strong, not-too-bright not too charismatic fighter, if events in the narrative say you'd want to pick up some arcane spell casting... you're basically out of luck. Fate, by comparison, is perfectly fine with this - character development is as much or more about change as it is power advancement. Swapping around skills and Aspects over time to react to what has happened in play is explicitly part of the system. Meanwhile, considering character driven play, D&D is fairly rules-heavy, such that your options of what to do in a given moment is strongly influenced by what effective actions you have on your sheet - as a player, there's not a lot of incentive to do things that aren't among your most effective actions. So, you're a fighter. You fight, using the weapons and styles on the sheet. That's what you do - play is very much a tactical exercise, largely because the rules are very focused on tactical action (as opposes to, say, longer term strategic choices). I'll compare this to... Mage: The Ascension. A character has extremely flexible areas of power. Even fairly early in play, there's a wide variety of things they can choose to try to do to react to a situation. If you have Matter 3, you are likely able to transform most of the basic physical items around you in any way you want. If a car is trying to run you down, maybe you'll throw up a physical wall in front of it, or maybe you'll make the engine seize up, exactly how you address a situation can become much more about how your character approaches the world than what their character sheet says... [/QUOTE]

Verification